


Sleepless

by spacexual



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cute, F/M, Fluff, Insomnia, Pale Romance, Sleepy Karkat, Slight Matespritship i guess?, Slurs, implied pale karkat/gamzee, moiraillegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-11
Updated: 2013-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-29 03:30:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1000356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacexual/pseuds/spacexual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat can't sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleepless

 

Kanaya would've have been - should have been - sleeping when Karkat came into her room - or the section of the meteor she'd called her own. But then again, she  didn't sleep. Not anymore.

 

    She heard the soft clang of the door as it closed across the mile or two of corridors. She'd been rearranging the pillows in one such corridor, pausing to fluff one  here and there. Her glow flickered with surprise, and she blinked it off. The corridor was quickly enveloped in darkness too black for even the most seasoned troll  eyes to see in - however, it was no difficulty for Kanaya. The effect to her was simply like putting on a pair of darker-than-usual sunglasses. She lightly padded  barefoot through the lofty halls, admiring her use of fabrics draped across the ceilings or a certainly colored pillow every so often.

 

 Karkat's voice gradually grew louder as she approached the troll: "SHITBRICKS, KANAYA! WHY THE EVERLOVING FUCK IS IT SO GODDAMN DARK IN HERE..."

 

    Kanaya smiled to herself as she ghosted through the darkness. She could begin to make out the figure of Karkat just ahead... She fell into step behind him, making  sure that she didn't make too loud a noise. As Karkat muttered something about needing a flashlight, she blinked on her glow as brightly as she could. Karkat shrieked  in a most un-Karkat-like way, tripping over himself and falling, letting loose a string of curses along the way. Kanaya (holding back a smile) crouched down beside him  as he fell, reaching out a slender hand to smooth back the hair in his eyes (despite his protests of  "HOLYSHITKANAYAWHYWOULDYOUDOTHTWHATINTHEEIGTHCIRCLEOFHELLISWRONGWITHYOU"). She held her hand against his forehead for a minute. "Are you  feeling alright?" Karkat blinked his eyes at her,  pupils contracting in response to her light. "Well, now that you fucking scared the shit out of me, I'm just goddamn  peachy. How about you?"

 

"Can't sleep again?"

 

"…yeah."

 

    Kanaya blinked and lightly smiled in response, then tugged on her moirail's hand. Karkat got up willingly and followed her to a cavernous room. Every noise they  made was silenced by the masses of pillows and fabrics all over the place. Kanaya picked up a lighter from a table and set to work lighting various paper lanterns  hanging from the ceiling.

 

 

 

    When she was done, the rainbow drinker flopped down on a monstrous pillow next to Karkat and tugged him into her lap. She ran her fingers through his hair as  she spoke, half-starting a small braid here and there. "So do you want me to sing you a lullaby?"

 

    Karkat sighed and laid his head back against her shoulder, making it rather difficult for Kanaya to continue her hair-playing. "No. I want to talk about Gamzee."

 

    Kanaya tensed up as soon as she heard his words, her glow flickering. "Karkat -"

 

"Yes, I know you don't like talking about him… but we should really get this over with. What should we do about him?"

 

    Kanaya sighed and started scratching at one perfectly arched eyebrow - a bad habit that she did when distressed. "He still thinks you're his moirail, yes?"

 

"Yeah… do you want to tell him about…us?"

 

 "We can't keep dodging around it like this, Karkat. It's not fair to him. I think he deserves to know."

 

"But Kanaya--"

 

"Karkat." Kanaya sucked her bottom lip through her teeth to keep herself from saying more.

 

     In response, Karkat sighed through clenched teeth. "Okay. So if I see him tomorrow, I'll tell him," he said reluctantly. He then took Kanaya's hand and  held it to his lips, kissing it - a sign of his surrender. In return, Kanaya turned Karkat so that he was facing her and kissed his forehead; a sign of her  acceptance.

 

"Are you ready to go to sleep now?" she asked quietly, dimming her glow to just a faint luminescence. The paper lanterns flickered all around the pair  like fireflies. Karkat spoke his confirmation quietly as he curled up against her, his face nestled in the curve between her neck and her shoulder. Kanaya  half smiled to herself and began rubbing small circles on the back of Karkat's neck with her thumb, the way that she knew made him extra drowsy. She  began murmuring a lullaby underneath her breath, the words sometimes escaping her half- breaths.

 

    Kanaya stopped singing the song after she finally noticed that Karkat's breathing was slow and even. To be sure, she lifted his head to see his face,  then gently placed it on the pillow they'd been sitting on. She untangled herself from her moirail's limbs and stood, finding a warm blanket to place over  him. She stood there for a bit, her glow flickering in time with Karkat's breathing. It intensified with each inhale, dimmed with each exhale. Eventually, she left to go occupy her time until what constituted  as morning on the meteor came.

 

\-------------------------------

 

    When Karkat woke up that morning, he found a small blanket placed over him. On it were pale ivory diamonds that shimmered in the light of the  lanterns. He carded his fingers through his hair, getting out all the tangles, before yawning and getting out of his pile of pillows and going to talk to  Gamzee.

 


End file.
